While IT professionals of all varieties are in high demand, the need for cybersecurity specialists is tremendous. More than 3.2 million records were compromised in the ten biggest data breaches in the first half of 2020 alone. On top of that, 2020 and the start of the pandemic have forced even more businesses to rely on their online presence, putting their businesses and their customers at risk of the escalating threat of cyberattacks. Yet, the experts project that nearly 3.5 million cybersecurity jobs will remain unfilled this year.
For a limited time, Udacity is offering 60% off all programs with code: CYBER 60.
As employers compete over the pool of cybersecurity professionals, salaries for cyber roles have risen. The median annual salary for an entry-level cybersecurity analyst in the US is over $70k, and the average annual salary for cybersecurity professionals is $135k. . There has never been a better time to enter this highly lucrative field.
Udacity's School of Cybersecurity Programs
Udacity, a global leader in online education, has launched a brand new School of Cybersecurity featuring several online courses designed to provide specialized training for both current and prospective cybersecurity professionals. Regardless of your current level of technical prowess, Udacity’s cybersecurity programs can help you learn the skills you need to get started in or advance your career in this highly lucrative and in-demand field.
Intro to Cybersecurity
With the Intro to Cybersecurity Nanodegree program, you will learn and master the skills necessary to enter this field, and best of all, you don’t need any experience in Cybersecurity to begin. Requiring only a basic familiarity with the principles of network connectivity, Windows, and Linux, this program is a great fit for anyone looking to get started in the field as well as those working in IT, Risk Management, or Consulting. In just four months and as little as ten hours a week, you’ll complete four courses with hands-on projects to help you learn the foundations of cybersecurity.
Your first course will cover the fundamentals of cybersecurity, including the common tools and environments cybersecurity professionals work in. You’ll learn best practices and career options, and you’ll apply the fundamentals to enforce cybersecurity governance. This course culminates with a project in which you will investigate and fix security issues on a Windows 10 client system.
The second course dives right into defending and securing computer systems and networks. You will learn how to implement and evaluate various firewalls, as well as various security options on both Windows and Linux machines. You’ll monitor and interpret logs to detect malicious activity and start on the basics of cryptography. This course wraps up with a project which puts you in the role of a new security analyst for a financial corporation, tasked with analyzing the business’s existing servers, making recommendations to increase security, create a firewall, and encrypt files for the client.
The next course tackles assessing threats, finding and fixing security vulnerabilities, and preparing for inevitable cyberattacks. Students will cover identifying threats so as to better prevent attacks. The course’s final project will task you with assessing cyberattacks on a network of hospitals and preventing a similar attack on a hospital that has yet to be targeted. You will need to identify the threat actor and their possible motivations, as well as shore up the hospital’s network against future attacks.
The final course in this program gets into the concepts of Governance, Risk, and Compliance(GRC) and how GRC has become an essential part of cybersecurity. You will learn the history and importance of GRC with lessons on each aspect. The final lesson will examine how GRC professionals manage security audits, before starting your final project where you will take on the role of a new GRC analyst for a company migrating its infrastructure to the cloud.
Security Analyst
Udacity doesn’t just have cybersecurity education for those new to the field. The Security Analyst Nanodegree program is perfect for those who already have a background in IT. Divided up into four courses that can be completed in just four months, this program will build on your existing understanding of IT and security.
The first course covers the fundamentals of defending systems. Students will examine the core principles of information security and learn how to identify common network attack vectors. You will learn about the various physical, logical, and administrative controls. You’ll also learn not only how to evaluate and incorporate security techniques, but also how to explain security concepts to the stakeholders you’re working for.
Next, you will study in-depth security threat analysis. In this course, you will learn how to identify and mitigate security threats, as well as how to properly model threats. This will culminate in a hands-on project that has you working for a massive company whose website has come under fire. You will identify the threat actor and their method of attack so you can analyze their architecture and build a threat model. Finally, you will build a mitigation plan for all of the threats and vulnerabilities you’ve discovered.
Your third course will examine potential security vulnerabilities and risk reduction. Your instructors will go over common vulnerabilities before teaching you how to thoroughly assess vulnerabilities to determine risk and business impact. Then you will learn how to manage and mitigate that risk. Your final project in this course will return to the business you worked with within the previous course, where you will conduct a risk analysis and provide a vulnerabilities report.
The final course in this program will cover the importance of incident detection. You will work over the course of each lesson to monitor, log, and respond to security incidents. Your final project will have you take the role of a temporary security analyst filling in for another analyst on vacation. Using the network diagram, incident handling playbook, and logs, you will uncover a security incident. You’ll then need to develop an intrusion detection system, as well as create Splunk dashboards and reports to further identify events of interest.
Security Engineer
Another option for the intermediate learner is the Security Engineer program. Designed for professionals who already have experience configuring AWS and Linux environments, as well as the basics of Python, this program teaches everything you’ll need to know to start working as a Security Engineer in just four months.
Your first course will go over the fundamentals of security engineering. You will learn security principles, practical cryptography, risk evaluation, and how to conduct a security review and audit. This will culminate with a hands-on project in which you will be tasked with assessing a timesheet logging application after a security breach. The lead on your team will provide you with a threat model that uncovered both the root cause of the incident, as well as other vulnerabilities and you will need to complete their work.
In the next course, you will examine system security and its implementation on an operating system level. In addition to identifying vulnerabilities, you will study in-depth authentication and authorization. This will be followed by lessons on isolation and auditing. The final project for the course will have you examining a nation-state cyber attack on a nuclear reactor plant. You will need to identify the infection chain, as well as build scanning, monitoring, and auditing tools to improve resilience against future attacks.
The third course will introduce the industry’s best practices for infrastructure security. Lessons will cover infrastructure security assessment and access management. You will work with both Windows and Linux to monitor activity and endpoint security, and examine the top security failures, as well as mitigation. Your final project will then have you advising a parent company on the integration of a new acquisition’s existing systems. You will check CIS benchmarks against Windows and Linux systems, perform a vulnerability scan using Nmap, and produce a comprehensive report backing your position on whether the acquisition is ready to be integrated.
Your final course will examine web application security. Your instructors will explain in depth the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) and how to mitigate each of the OWASP’s top ten items. You will also learn how to conduct web penetration testing, simulating a variety of attack vectors. You’ll continue on to Static Application Security Tests and how to write a proper vulnerability report, concluding with mitigation and verification. The final project of this course will have you filling the role of a newly hired security engineer for a startup company whose customer data was breached. You’ll go step by step through the process of identifying vulnerabilities, mitigating, and documenting the process to help the development team.
Ethical Hacker
For the advanced learner, Udacity has just launched a brand new Nanodegree program: Ethical Hacker. Students in this program will learn all the necessary skills to advance their security careers and become penetration testers. Designed for students and professionals who already have a solid background in Windows OS and Linux file structure and commands, as well as networking basics, three-way handshake, encryption, and hashing, this program can be completed in just two months at five to ten hours a week.
The first course will guide students through the techniques and job responsibilities of an ethical hacker. You will learn how to evaluate security risks while protecting a business’s core operations to improve a business’s policies, procedures, and standards of conduct within its computer systems. These lessons will lead to a hands-on project which places students in the role of an ethical hacker responsible for a complete security audit of a large business. You will practice vulnerability management, hacking systems and applications, social engineering, and using open-source intelligence.
Your second course will go more in-depth on penetration testing to perform cybersecurity assessments. Students will learn how to identify vulnerabilities, flaws, and risks of an organization’s systems as part of a red team. Your final project will utilize penetration testing and red teaming methodologies to test the security of a financial institution’s virtual operations, all while providing clear and concise documentation in a timely fashion.
Udacity: a name you can trust
For the last decade, Udacity has made education accessible around the world and has helped millions of driven professionals and aspiring learners advance their careers with new, marketable skills. In fact, according to a 2020 survey of Udacity graduates who signed up to advance their careers, over 70% reported a favorable career outcome.
Take the first step to an exciting future in cybersecurity and enroll in a cybersecurity program with Udacity! For a limited time, Udacity is offering 60% off all programs with code: CYBER 60. Don’t miss out on this special offer.
